Description
Prayer Charm For Bracelet LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF Materials: Sterling Silver (925 grade), 24K Gilding, Blackening Average weight: 5.5 grams Total length: 9 * 10 mm Technique: casting, gilding, blackening, handmade. Symbolism and application of the item This bead is of a very simple, I should say, austere design as if symbolizing the life ...of monks and hermits. The prayer of the last Optina elders is engraved on the bead. I intentionally do not give the words of the prayer here, as you should read them yourselves. And here's in short about the Optina elders. The Optina Pustyn (Russian: Оптина пустынь, literally Opta's hermitage) is an Eastern Orthodox monastery for men near Kozelsk in Russia. In the 19th century, the Optina was the most important spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church and served as the model for several other monasteries, including the nearby Shamordino Convent. It was particularly renowned as the center of Russian Orthodox eldership. The Optina elders possessed all the gifts of the Holy Spirit: the gift of spiritual discernment, the gift of healing human souls and bodies, the gift of clairvoyance, and the gift of prayer so miraculous that it struck like lightning to the heavens. They could call an unknown person by name, read letters without opening them, see a person's past and future, reveal people's forgotten sins at confession, and return hearing and speech to the deaf and dumb; but they considered the greatest miracle to be the Eucharist, and the greatest gift to be repentance. After the Russian Revolution, the last of the elders were forcibly deported from the monastery, which was declared a gulag. The last hegumen was executed in Tula in 1938. Later, some of the structures were demolished, while the cathedral was designated a literary museum. But in 1988, after sixty-five years of ruin, the first brothers entered these walls and saw only the abomination of desolation in the holy place. Churches in ruins. But Optina has risen from the ashes, and is even more beautiful! In the 1990s its most notable elders were glorified as saints. They are commemorated together on October 10 (October 23 on the Gregorian Calendar).In 1993 three inhabitants of the monastery were murdered on Easter night. They were Hieromonk Basil (Roslyakov), monk Ferapont (Pushkaryov) and Monk Trophim (Tatarinov), known collectively as the Optina martyrs. Such is the history in a few words of Optina elders. A bracelet or a necklace made from these beads can be a very meaningful present to any believer, as the beads commemorate the strong belief and the prodigious life of the Optina elders. Why should you buy this item?Need further information? If you have any questions, please, do not hesitate to contact me, I'll be glad to answer them.
- Hundreds of people come to Optina every day. Why do they come? They are coming to the Optina elders! Remember the saying, “People don’t go to an empty well”?
- The last words of the prayer ask to be taught to pray, to believe, to hope, to endure, to forgive, and to love. Aren’t these things the essence of life?
- The words of the prayer and the simple design of the beads make me contemplate the meaning and goals of life.
